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Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Stairs are Finally Done

Saturday was a very productive day for me. Charlie's whining had me up at 8 am and I was in get-it-done mode (Not to be confused with git-r-done. Totally different.). My #1 priority on Saturday was to finish the stairs and hallway. Oh my, does it ever feel good to have them done.

Let's start with the least exciting of the two - the hallway.

There has always been an access door in the hallway (so that we could get to the plumbing) but when my dad changed the fixtures in the bathroom, the whole got bigger and had little hole babies. My dad patched most of it with drywall and he built a nice door for the larger opening.

This is one of those things that has been staring me in the face every single day. Every time I walk up the stairs I look at the patched wall and the door and say to myself "I really need to paint that."

It's so nice to finally have it done! I didn't realize how much it was bugging me until I was finished. Later in the day, I was walking up the stairs and (being so used to seeing the unpainted wall) was surprised to see this finished. It feels so good to cross that off the to-do list.

I painted the door and trim around the door gray to match the wall so it wouldn't stand out as much. This door is quite an upgrade from what used to be there. That's one thing that makes my dad even more amazing - he doesn't do anything halfway. He could have just stuck a rectangular piece of wood in that opening like there was before. Instead, he framed it out, put trim around it and put a very nice handle on it. Thanks, Dad!

Now on to the most exciting update - the stairs!

Many months ago, when I first painted everything, I taped off the stairs and gave them a coat of primer. After owning the home for several weeks, I noticed the stair fronts getting scuffed up very quickly. I decided to leave them that way until the bathroom was done (aka- no big work boots going up and down the stairs).

So this is what my stairs have looks like every day since I moved in - blue tape peaking out from under the carpet treads. Plus, the carpet treads moved constantly, so I was always fixing them.

You could also see the blue tape from the rest of the living room - as my mom so wonderfully pointed out when I posted this photo on Instagram. It was time to fix that little eyesore!

First, I cleaned the stairs with murphy oil (killing several spiders along the way) so that I didn't have to kneel in dust and dirt (and spiders, oh my!) while painting. The water in the bucket was disgustingly brown when I finished. By the time I reached the last step my knees were killing me!

Since I needed to go to Home Depot anyway, I added "knee pads" to my list and headed right over. I didn't want to be kneeling on those steps any more until I had those knee pads. Seriously - best $8 I've ever spent. What a difference they made!

After cleaning, I painted on two coats of white semigloss (the same that I used for all of my trim). Next, I peeled off all of the blue tape (insert huge sigh of relief). Then, I cleaned the steps again. The fact that I ended with another disgustingly brown bucket of water grosses me out a little - Were they really that dirty? Bleck.

The final step was adding on the carpet treads. I bought these treads in gray and really love them. Charlie appreciates them, too. This time around, I cut up a piece of non-slip rug pad to prevent the pieces from moving around so much. I just wanted to test it out, so I didn't buy enough for each tread. If this works, I will. So far so good.

This is something you've probably heard seen me say a million times, but I'm going to say it again - This is my favorite part of my house: I love the colors and the feel of this space. It's so nice to look over there and no longer see that dang blue tape sticking out over the edge!

I kicked Saturday's butt - along with the two projects I showed you today, I also: